Rosenthal Chevrolet Arlington, VA

[Supercar_Kid]

Does anyone have any period photos, brochures, memorabilia, information, anything at all on Rosenthal Chevrolet Co. in Arlington, VA? [img]/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/[/img]

[Verne_Frantz]

About the only thing I can offer is based on a query of my own regarding a '61 Chevy I own. Rosenthal was in the habit of ordering quite a few hi-perf cars and sponsoring some at the drags. In '62 (not an era of much interest to most on this board), Mousie Brown ran a '62 Chevy provided by Rosenthal. The car was financed by Annebelle Walker, along with 2 other (non-Chevy) cars from other dealers in the area.
I believe Mousie is still around. I have a contact number I need to follow up on for my own investigation.
I can put you in contact with another person who lived in the area and has first hand experience with Rosenthal. I have to look up his info at home.
Verne.

[COPO]

Rosenthal may still be in business, at least they were a few years ago when I lived nearby. I know they sold at least 1 LS-6 Convertible. Believe they also had one of the first 67 Z's.

[Charles]

Back in '93 there was a 1967 Corvette offered for sale. It was sold thru Rosenthal Chevrolet in February 1967. It was a silver on black coupe. Seller had original owner affidavit with list of options and complete title history. Unfortunately there was no GM paperwork to prove that it was a factory L-88. Those parts were no longer with the car. Perhaps it was one of the 20 built for 1967.

[Supercar_Kid]

From what I've been able to dig up, it seems that Rosenthal sold a bunch of Corvettes. I found a showroom photo showing a '68 327 Vette and a bunch of people crowding around it like it was a big deal, maybe their first C3? I'm not familiar with the Arlington area, but I've been told there is a nearby military base, so that might explain where some of the hi-perf oriented customers came from back in the day. Anyone know of any other hi-perf cars that were sold new at Rosenthal?

[Charles]

The local dealer's first 1968 Corvette was a red convertible with a white soft top. The car was a 300HP 4-speed version. This was typical of the early units shipped. The coupes seemed very scarce at the start of production in 1968. The last 1968 Corvette to arrive was a LeMans blue 427 coupe. It's hard to believe now, but the 1968 Corvette was a very big deal when it came out. The coke-bottle shape endured for 14 long years.
Some contend that later Corvette designs have not improved on the "style" of that coke-bottle shape.

[Pantera]

There was a real shortage of the '68's back then and especially BB coupes. Nobody wanted to wait for one to be built so they brought sticker. We had the same thing happen in '78 when they put the big back window on them. I was paying list for them right off the showroom floor and selling them to a dealer in Calif for 2 grand over and he would take all that I could get my hands on.

Then the '78 Pace cars came out and we paid $19,800 for one from a small town dealer (Pryor) that still had one and he gave us $24k for it. I have a pic of three that we send out there at one time.

[Charles]

Your are right that even a new back window was something to get excited about back then! It only took 10 years to get a new window design; people had lower expectations back then. In 1976 many months before the new 1978 Corvette was introduced Dave M. showed up at the Holiday Inn with a prototype of the new Corvette. The car was not delivered in a trailer, it had nothing tacked on to hide the design features and he arrived alone. Dave gave an interesting talk about the changes for the 25th Anniversary of the Corvette. Everyone then went outside to look at the prototype. One of the wives, who had a Corvette herself wanted to sit in the car. She got in the car started it up and drove off with it. The look on Dave's face was priceless as she drove off with his prototype Corvette. Much to his relief she returned the Corvette after a brief tour of the parking lot. However nobody else got a test drive that night...

[camarojoe]

Just realized that there was a ZL-1 sold from Rosenthal [img]/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/blush.gif[/img]... does this car still exist?

[mr396]

I have a 1968 RS/SS L34 396 Camaro convertible with a/c that was sold new at Rosenthal Chevrolet on july 21 1968. original owner was John Popejoy. It is Sequoia green with a black top and ivory/black int. It is a high option car with the L34 396,RS,TH400, a/c, am/fm mono, 8-track stereo,tach and gauges.,!2 bolt posi.p/steering,p/disc brakes,with uniroyal tiger paw red stripe tires.XF steel wheels and dog dish caps.It has 68,000 orig. miles and has been stored for the last 25 years and it has it's p.o.p.